Trump's war on Iran coming apart at the seams

The warnings — detailed for Hegseth by the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the four-star commanders overseeing U.S. operations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America — appear in the Aug. 14 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), these people said. They described the assessment to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because the document is classified.

The warnings [by top battle commanders] allegedly appeared in an internal classified document, and as such the descriptions thereof are considered to be major leaks, which has pushed Trump over the edge, [thus demanding polygraphs].

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation to President Trump following months of tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the direction of the service and the ouster of numerous senior Army officers.

He is expected to leave the Pentagon in coming days.

With Driscoll’s departure, the Army will lack top Senate-confirmed civilian or military leaders. Gen. Christopher LaNeve has served as acting chief of the service since Hegseth fired his predecessor, Gen. Randy George. Mike Obadal, the Army undersecretary, would be the highest ranking civilian after Driscoll departs.

Bloomberg showed that in August, one US ally—that of Saudi Arabia—was still at a massive deficit compared to previous Persian Gulf shipments. 

This came about during another exchange which saw the US hit three Iranian tankers, with Iran responding by reportedly firing missiles at not only US warships, but also oil tankers being escorted through the US blockade-breaking route. 

The one area where Iran continues to hold dominance is in escalation potential: it has by now rebuilt virtually everything that’s been lost earlier in the war, with missile production said to be thrumming. The US on the other hand is suffering from such major shortages of critical munitions that it has prevented Trump from escalating to a wider campaign.

Recall how earlier in the war a huge deal was made over the claims that it was Iran’s strike tempo that was diminishing, while the US sortie count was soaring and all kinds of “major” military targets in Iran were being hit. Now the US appears totally spent—an exhausted and impotent force—like an old boxer in his last few rounds, winging slow, ineffective punches with no pop to them. Iran has demonstrated that it now holds escalation dominance, having called all Trump’s loudest bluffs and withstood the storm. And the longer this goes on, the more the internal revolts inside the Pentagon and in Trump’s administration appear to be growing as officials begin to comprehend the dire nature of the debacle.

This tells us that it is Iran that continues to hold the cards and the advantage in time.

~ All above by Simplicius